July

July 4th weekend 2 of my nieces came and spent the weekend with us. I made sushi the one evening. I use a soy wrap instead nori (seaweed wrap), since most everyone I eat with prefers that.

In July I went to Pennsylvania for a seminar and we went to “Kish” Valley to visit and friend and do a little shopping. It was a beautiful time to visit this area!

Postcard Pretty, I say!

One can’t help but be intrigued by the locals as well.

I had a photoshoot that was bittersweet. The theme of the article for which I was asked to photograph was Home. My sweet friend who lost her sister very suddenly in May agreed to be the model.

One sunny, July evening I took a drive into the countryside to get some photos for a photo project. This image of a peanut field is about 10 photos stitched together. I invested in a new stitching program which does an amazing job. The free one included with a Canon camera purchase does a pretty good job but this one called EasyPano is phenomenal.

I felt much like my dad when I stopped next to a field of corn being harvested and chatted with the men who were also watching. Not surprising, they knew my dad.

The evening light was just amazing!

Mid-summer is also a good time to enjoy a drive around Lake Grace.

August

A revisit to the peanut field under entirely different weather saw a different beautiful view.

A wedding took place here. I was the wedding coordinator and took pretty much no pictures. A stormy afternoon produced a vivid heat lightning storm later that evening. By the time I got home to get my camera and back to where I could see it, it had gone from constant heat lightning to occasional lightning.

Summertime in our area most typically includes lots of thunderstorms and rainshowers. I was amazed at the dedication of the lawn care for the business next to ours. The rain did not stop them. As they say, “the show must go on.”

August took us to Ohio for a wedding.

September

I actually took very few photos in September, mostly because I was busy with a big photo project in my spare time. We did, however, make one trip down to the island with guests from out-of-state, to show them our favorite places.

October

We started out October with a trip to VA for our nephew’s wedding. We got up in time for my sister to practice with a big group that was doing the wedding music. The did a beautiful job!!

I was able to help with setting up for the reception, including making these floral centerpieces.

My mom made 3 kinds of cheesecake and they were all over-the-top good!!

After the wedding my sister and I went to WV for a few days. You’ve already seen my pictures from Babcock State Park, but here are a few of them again.

I went to Atlanta to visit friends. We had fun touring the city, eating Greek take-out, watching the boys play soccer, (window)shopping in a trendy spot, taking in a kite festival (which was hoot! all those kites up at the same time …. for those who could actually get them up.) and a bit of catching up.

Sunday afternoon we went into the city to enjoy Atlanta Streets Alive, where a street is shut down for several hours to vehicles. This time it was Peachtree Street, which was cool, because the few times that I’ve been on it otherwise, the traffic felt a bit chaotic and overwhelming (I seriously don’t enjoy city driving!)

Amazing street art

We just strolled up to the Federal Reserve Building and took pictures. Christy took my profile picture there.

The Margaret Mitchell Home is surrounded by sky scrapers.

Most of the time the streets were fuller than this. This was just shortly before the streets were opened to vehicle traffic again.

Christy took me to the Jackson St. Bridge, the perfect place to get skyline pictures. Here are 2 different shots.

One a silhouette:

The other a long-exposure (1/3 second) :

Back to Wayne County where the peanuts have been freshly dug. They let them dry out a few days before they are combined.

November

brought fluffy cotton framed against blue skies,

foggy mornings with sunbeams,

and some brilliant colors in selective places.

We had special Thanksgiving meal for Kids’ Club. I sat down to eat with the youngest group (6 & 7-year-olds). As we were eating, one of them said, “When are we eating supper? Mr. Eric said we were going to have supper.” I’m guessing she wasn’t quite sure what supper was.

One coolish Sunday afternoon we went down to Jekyll Island.

Everything was decorated for Christmas. The Club Hotel was at its most charming right at dusk!

December

Clear evenings with a sliver moon.

Over Christmas, our family went to Outer Banks for most of a week. The house(s) we rented only had week-long rental so some of us stayed a day or 2 longer than we normally would have. We had a great time and it was nice to get a quiet day in before we headed back home.

The colors were ever changing.

Bodie Island Lighthouse by day.

The lighthouse at dusk.

The sunset was nothing like the previous night. Can you imagine this lighthouse with the sunset above ^^ ?

There was a wildlife viewing area where we saw lots of water fowl.